Author: NY TIMES

If one wonders how a franchise on its sixth film in under 15 years (counting spinoffs) could still have any good ideas, one solution, apparently, is to simply throw all ideas at the screen. That’s the approach taken in “Despicable Me 4,” the latest, messily passable iteration of the deliriously successful franchise that follows the adventures of the reformed supervillain Gru.This one, helmed by the animated franchise’s longtime director and producer Chris Renaud, is a stream of mostly high-octane B-plots: Members of Gru’s family are struggling to adjust to life in witness protection after a new villain (Will Ferrell) becomes…

Against the tideBritain goes to the polls today after a campaign that featured the same ingredients as other elections across Europe and the Americas: frustrated voters eager to reject the status quo, a deeply discredited government and a dash of populism — in this case, represented by the insurgent candidacy of Nigel Farage.But Britain is likely to emerge from the election as an outlier. While the electorates in other countries are shifting to the right, British voters are expected to evict the Conservative-led government after 14 years, in favor of the center-left Labour Party. In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain why…

BOSTON — Liam Hendriks took off his pants when he spoke. He was wearing underwear, but his uniform hung down to his knees. He just threw his first bullpen of the year last Wednesday, which is a major step forward for any pitcher returning from Tommy John surgery. Yet he stood in the Boston Red Sox clubhouse and refused to take the incident as serious or even as something noteworthy.How does his arm feel?”Enclosed,” he said.Is there extra adrenaline on the mound?”Not really,” he replied.What stood out about the recovery process?”This is so boring,” Hendrix deadpanned.None of this comes across…

“It started with me stalking a nun with a cashmere goat farm,” said Melissa Ventosa Martin, the founder of Old Stone Trade, an online marketplace for wares made by international artisans.Since 2021 Ms. Ventosa Martin, 45, has peddled made-to-order items like a green tweed kilt from Andrea Chappell’s Acme Atelier in Scotland or hand-stitched loafers from Aldanondo y Fdez in Spain — the kinds of rare, high-quality things she once bought while traveling in her former career as a fashion editor.Two years ago she began planning a collection around the concept of a “classic” American uniform: jeans, a perfect cashmere…

As new coronavirus variants gain traction across the United States, summer travelers are facing a familiar and tiresome question: How will the ever-mutating virus affect travel plans?In light of updated guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the answers may be slightly different from those in previous years.Here’s what to know about traveling this summer if you’re worried about — or think you might have — Covid-19.What’s going on with Covid?Recent C.D.C. data show that Covid infections are rising or most likely rising in more than 40 states. Hospitalization rates and deaths, while low compared with the peaks…

The French movie director Benoît Jacquot was charged on Wednesday with the rape of two actresses, Julia Roy and Isild Le Besco, several years ago, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.Mr. Jacquot, 77, is one of two directors facing a wave of #MeToo accusations that have roiled France’s movie industry since the actress Judith Godrèche came forward to say he had raped her during an abusive relationship that started when she was 14 and he was 39.In the wake of Ms. Godrèche’s accusations, Ms. Roy, 34, and Ms. Le Besco, 41, publicly accused Mr. Jacquot of keeping them in similarly…

An evacuation order by the Israeli military this week covering roughly a third of the Gaza Strip came as people there are less and less equipped to handle repeated forced displacements, after nearly nine months of war that have left tens of thousands dead and injured and put the territory at risk of famine.The order, which the United Nations has estimated affects about 250,000 people, was the largest since October, when about a million residents of northern Gaza were told to flee their homes, the organization said on Tuesday.“It’s an endless cycle of death and displacement,” said Louise Wateridge, a…

The president of the small West African country of Sierra Leone signed a law on Tuesday that banned marriage for children age 18 and younger and would impose steep fines on adult spouses. The move was a victory for activists who had long fought to eradicate the widespread practice.The new legislation goes further than many other similar laws in Africa, experts said, by penalizing people who enable the marriage — like the parents, the officiant and even the wedding guests — in addition to the husband.There were about 800,000 girls under the age of 18 who were married in Sierra…

Nestor Lorenzo often had a clever way of summarizing things. The eloquent Colombian coach said it again when asked about the enigmatic James Rodriguez ahead of Tuesday’s crucial clash with Brazil.”Now he’s running less but thinking more. That’s good for him. He’s in a good environment and that’s why he plays.After just three games at the 2024 Copa America, the 32-year-old Rodriguez has already created 11 chances for his teammates – more than any other player in the tournament – and provided three assists. He would have had a fourth had it not been for a ruthless line-out by the…

Last week, Nolen Royalty unleashed upon the world a website with a million empty check boxes.Mr. Royalty, 32, a game developer in Brooklyn, created the site in a fit of inspiration and shared it on X last Wednesday with low expectations. “Basically anyone I described it to chuckled, at most,” he said.Rows of unchecked squares sat tantalizingly against a pale gray background, an unexplored Minesweeper field. A visitor to the page checked one box. Then another. Each time a person checked a box, it was instantly filled in on everybody else’s screens, like a kind of collaborative grocery list accessible…